“We should be very happy?” queried Frances; and this time she went close to her brother, and took his hand. “Oh, Jim!” she exclaimed, her eyes bright with tears; “don’t go away from us, dear Jim!”
“You sha’n’t go away—so that’s all about it!” cried Austin, with a masterful toss of his fair head. “You sha’n’t oversee anybody, except us. It’s tommy-rot.”
“We are happy now,” continued Frances in trembling haste. “We don’t want any more money, if we can’t have it without giving you up to Australia. What’s the use of having found you, Jim, if you go away again?”
M432
“AH! BUT YOU WOULD MAKE SUCH A MISTAKE IF YOU THOUGHT WE WOULD LET YOU GO.”
Boy and girl, on either side, were clinging tightly to him. Jim, trying to be calm—trying to be brave—looked desperately to his stepmother for her expected support. If she should quench Austin and Frances with some cynical reproof—if she should accept Jim’s final sacrifice with just a word of contemptuous indifference—surely his pride would help his judgment to keep fast hold of his failing courage.
Mrs. Morland had already risen, and was coming towards him now with hands outstretched, and in her face the light of a motherly love to which Jim could not try to be blind.
“Would you really do that for us?” she asked, smiling, though her voice was not quite steady. “Ah! but you would make such a mistake if you thought we would let you go. Frances is right;—we can do without wealth, but we can’t do without you!”